TRANSPORT AND COMMUNICATIONS

RAILWAYS

Miraj-Kolhapur railway.

The meter gauge railway line between Miraj and Kolhapur was opened for traffic on 21st April 1891. This line, about 30 miles long, belonged to the Kolhapur Durbar, but was managed by the ex-Southern Mahratta Railway. On account of the merger of the State in the Indian Union and the nationalisation and regrouping of the railways, this railway line is now part of the Southern Railway.

It runs south-west from Miraj to Kolhapur. The following are the stations with their distance, in miles, from Miraj:-

Jaisingpur

8

Nimshirgaon-Khalsa

--

Hatkanangale

17

Rukadi

21

Kolhapur

30

The main items of export from the district are jaggery and sugar. Moreover during the rainy season when country craft cannot ply, the railhead at Kolhapur serves admirably for passenger as well as for goods traffic between Ratnagiri and Bombay.

The following table gives the number of passengers and tons of goods booked at each station during 1953-54:-

TABLE No. 10.

NUMBER OF PASSENGERS BOOKED AND TONNAGE OF GOODS CLEARED FOR THE YEAR 1953-54.

Name of the Station.

Number of passengers booked.

Tonnage of goods cleared (principal commodities).

Coal and Coke.

Cotton.

Dyes and Tans.

Grains and Pulses.

Hides, skins and leather.

Ground-nuts.

Metals and manga-nese.

Raw.

Manufac-tured.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Jaisingpur

2,84,999

--

--

59

--

1,265

--

2

126

Hatkanangale

1,94,488

--

--

906

--

6.471

--

5

102

Rukadi

1,50,893

--

--

10

--

--

--

44,679

9

Kolhapur

5,21,935

1.034

1.071

10,444

3,391

17,400

9,575

55,469

7,077

Kolhapur Town B.O.

43,069

--

--

--

--

--

--

--

--

TABLE No. 10-contd.

Name of the Station.

Tonnage of goods clearned (principal commodities).

Provi-sions.

Oils.

Oil Seeds.

Spices.

Sugar.

Wood (unwrought).

Other commo-dities.

Total.

1

11

12

13

14

15

10

17

18

Jaisingpur

25

73

--

35

18

213

32,244

34,060

Hatkanangale

--

66

109

--

34,851

--

6,734

49,244

Rukadi

--

103

--

--

--

--

805

45,606

Kolhapur

583

2,956

105

147

5,11,276

10

53,649

6,74,187

Kolhapur Town B.O.

--

--

--

--

--

--

--

--

It will be seen from the table that the largest number of passengers were booked from Kolhapur; next comes Jaisingpur. As regards the total tonnage of goods booked during the same year, the first place goes to Kolhapur and the second to Hatkanangale. Of the total tons of goods booked on this section, sugar forms the largest proportion viz., 67.4 per cent.

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